Why do so many sites squeeze their content into one skinny column?
Usually there is nothing but empty space to the sides, and the font size is too small for comfort. Is that supposed look professional? Do any designers out there hate this as much as me? I always end up hitting CMD+ to increase the size until my whole screen is used.
3 comments
So many people don't understand that their browser window can be resized, so if you have text that spans the entire width, there might be 30 or 40 words per line, or even more. I've seen research that suggests reading is easiest with around 10 words per line.
Net result is that text is easiest to read with a small number of words per line, and the only way to ensure that cross-browsers, and for all window sizings, is to create a single column.
Here's a page using the full width: http://www.penzba.co.uk/Catastrophe/
That's quite hard to read compared with these:
+ http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/TheTeleportingTurtle.html
+ http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/TrappingATranscendental.htm...
+ http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/EnumeratingTheRationals.htm...
Personally I find those much, much easier to read.
Net result is that text is easiest to read with a small number of words per line, and the only way to ensure that cross-browsers, and for all window sizings, is to create a single column.
Here's a page using the full width: http://www.penzba.co.uk/Catastrophe/
That's quite hard to read compared with these:
+ http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/TheTeleportingTurtle.html
+ http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/TrappingATranscendental.htm...
+ http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/EnumeratingTheRationals.htm...
Personally I find those much, much easier to read.
A couple of reasons besides stylistic pretension (though that might be true in some cases):
1. Skinny columns of text are easier to scan quickly. This is the same reason newspapers do it.
2. When you're using a fixed-width layout, you're going to look skinny at some screen resolutions and scroll horizontally on others. People are generally more horrified by the latter than the former, so they go conservative and target a fairly small screen size — in that case, 640px wide. Very likely, the people behind the site have a smaller display than you do (though a site targeting 640x480 is still probably aiming a few notches below their own display).
1. Skinny columns of text are easier to scan quickly. This is the same reason newspapers do it.
2. When you're using a fixed-width layout, you're going to look skinny at some screen resolutions and scroll horizontally on others. People are generally more horrified by the latter than the former, so they go conservative and target a fairly small screen size — in that case, 640px wide. Very likely, the people behind the site have a smaller display than you do (though a site targeting 640x480 is still probably aiming a few notches below their own display).
Yes, having too many words on one line is hard to read. I would rather they just increase the size of everything.. sure it might lead to a little more vertical scrolling, but we're all used to that.
Like you said, there's no one optimal layout for all resolutions, and maybe i'm running higher than most people (1440 x 900 on my 15" mbp.. the default). But I would have thought it would be standard by now take into account the screen's resolution when laying things out. Maybe that's too difficult.. I don't know.
Like you said, there's no one optimal layout for all resolutions, and maybe i'm running higher than most people (1440 x 900 on my 15" mbp.. the default). But I would have thought it would be standard by now take into account the screen's resolution when laying things out. Maybe that's too difficult.. I don't know.
Solution: Don't do fixed-width layouts.
Would you mind expanding on this? Suppose I have a body of text, and I want to adhere to the guideline of having some 10 or 12 words per line.
How would you recommend I accomplish that?
How would you recommend I accomplish that?
Hmm. Disappointing that you haven't replied.
That's one of my pet peeves. Here's an example: http://www.creativecircle.com/Candidates.aspx